Pages

Friday, October 9, 2015

31 Days of Halloween 2015: Der Samurai (now on home video)

[31 Days of Halloween 2015: MOTIVATIONAL GROWTH is now available on DVD, Blu Ray, and On
Demand.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

*Note: As with last year’s 31 Days of Halloween marathon of
horror movie reviews, we’ll be diving deep into the new release section looking
for modern horror fare, hoping for the best, but frankly expecting the worst. And a further note for this review: yes, I'm slacking off and reposting a review from earlier this year. I was on vacation the last couple days and didn't have time to watch and review another new film. Plus this is a good movie that deserves some more attention, in my opinion.*

Review
by Bob Ignizio

Although billed as a horror film, that
seems too limiting a label to put on DER SAMURAI. In
the film, Jakob (Michel Diercks) is a young police officer charged
with capturing a wolf that has been terrorizing the locals. But
instead of trying to kill the beast for which he has obvious
sympathy, he opts to feed it deep in the woods, hoping that will keep
it away. Because of his sensitivity and perceived weakness, Jakob is
disrespected and tormented by his peers, who all but call him
“faggot” as they mock him.

Things
get strange when a package addressed to “the lonely wolf” shows
up at Jakob's address. He takes it into the woods where he finds,
instead of a wolf, a transvestite wearing a dress (Pit Bukowski). The
transvestite takes the package, which turns out to contain a samurai
sword, and sets off on a spree of mayhem and murder. Jakob realizes
he has to stop this madman, but does he have what it takes? Perhaps
more importantly, does he see something of himself in this gender
bending figure? Both actors turn in first rate performances that
really bring out the connections between their characters.

It's
obvious that one isn't meant to take DER SAMURAI
too literally. There's a “fairy tale” tone what with the “big
bad wolf” figure (who even poses a threat to Jakob's grandmother),
and you don't have to be Freud to realize the film is more about
Jakob's sexual repression than the “cop chases a killer” story on
its surface. Of course the surface story works just fine, too, but in
this case, the subtext really is the text. The imagery and themes are
compelling, and while the film deals specifically with issues of
gender and sexuality, it's not hard for anyone who has ever felt like
an outsider to relate to Jakob, or to feel a degree of admiration
mixed in with the horror as “The Lonely Wolf” dispatches the
small-minded denizens of Jakob's village in an orgy of stylized
violence.

German
filmmaker Till Kleinert has honed his skills with a number of shorts
this reviewer has not seen, with DER SAMURAI
marking his feature debut. It's an impressively assured film that
delivers a fully realized vision seemingly without wasting a single
frame. Fans of late seventies/early eighties Euro horror stylists
like Dario Argento will certainly appreciate both the film's visual
style and its lack of squeamishness when it comes to depicting
onscreen carnage, while the symbolism and social commentary should
please devotees of arthouse eccentrics like David Lynch and Alejandro
Jodorowsky. It's unfortunate that such a fine debut has, with the
exception of a few festival showings, been sent straight to video,
but such is the state of affairs for challenging films that don't fit
into neat, easily marketed boxes these days. 3 ½ out of 4 stars.